


Good Morning Chicago!

by handsometabbyc



Category: Planes Trains and Automobiles (1987)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Radio, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2020-09-27 18:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20411977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handsometabbyc/pseuds/handsometabbyc
Summary: Rival radio host's Del Griffeth and Neal Page get fired from their jobs after a squable, only to land on the same morning show at a diffrent station. With little alternative options the two decide to try and work together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic embodies two AU's I love: Radio and one where Marie is still alive. Because aside from forgoing dead wife angst I just imagine her being adorable.

Neal often felt bad days started out with little irritations, little things to get under his skin before everything snowballed into a complete shit storm. Today was no exception when he split coffee all over the shirt he'd wanted to wear.

"Aw, you've got to be kidding me..." He exclaimed, rubbing it futilely with napkins. "Right before I have to leave?" 

“Why does it matter Daddy? they aren’t going to see you.” His daughter Marty pointed out. Her and her brother had just come home from school, and this was the brief fifteen minute period they got to spend together before he had to rush off to his afternoon radio show 'making sense with cents'

“Maybe not honey, but other people at the station are going to see me, and if I attract their attention my show will get put into a better slot, so I don’t want to look like a slob. Dress for the job you want as they say.”

“Would you be famous?” She asked excitedly.

“I wouldn’t call it being famous, but it certainly has more respectability and clout.” He called as he went to his bedroom to get another shirt.

“Marty, why don’t you find your brother, tell him Daddy's leaving for work.” Susan told her.

Neal came back wearing a new shirt, tucking it in with the belt unbuckled. He looked up, smiling nervously. “What do you think?”

“You look fine.” She said adjusting his tie. “Just…make sure you don’t forget us when you get famous.” She teased, and he rolled his eyes.

“Never.” He said and she smiled, pulling him down by his shirt collar to give him a kiss.

\---

He forgot the sandwich he usual brought for dinner, so he stopped at the deli by the station for one.

“Crowded today huh?” A woman behind him remarked as he waited for them to make his meal

“Yeah, just one of those days.” He frowned, turning back to look at her, a petite woman with blonde hair cut in a bob, and when he did he she flashed a pleasant ‘suburbanite out on the town’ smile, dressed in a green nurses uniform leading him to believe she was headed to or from work.

"...Not to be that jerk, I'm shamefully spacing on your name, but I'm pretty sure we've met."

She laughed at that. "Its fine...most people don't recognize me at all, I'm practically invisible at the station especially when I'm not with my husband Del."

"Right, Del's wife, Dammit...you must be Marie then." He said with tired triumph.

She groaned a little. "He talks way too much about me on the air. I know he means well, but sometimes it's a bit much."

"I don't get it, I've always preferred to keep my personal life personal." 

"From what I've heard of your show you don't mention Susan much." She remarked. When he looked at her peculiarly she elaborated: "We've been to several of the same station parties."

"Oh right..." He laughed nervously. "I guess you would've been."

"But hey, at least you knew me from the radio show." there was a kind of pointedness to the statement that gave him pause.

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

"Nothing...I mean, you bring him up a lot on your own show, so I assume you listen to his." She said with an apologetic little smile.

"What? No...look, he talks about my show, which might I say is odd for a show about alien abductions and conspiracy theories-"

"It's really a mixed bag, what he's interested in." She insisted. "Sure that includes a lot of oddball things that involve aliens and and Sasquatch-" 

"And my show, oh-" He said said with a maniacal smile, shaking his head. "-He likes to bring up my show because it's right before his and there's fresh opportunity to 'explore' topics I brought up, grossly over exaggerations I have to correct. And he always does it at the first half hour because he knows I'll be listening on the ride home."

Marie tried to stifle a laugh at that. "If you know he's trying to get a rise out of you why do you listen in the first place?"

"What do you mean?" He said with a frown. "If someone's going to talk shit about carefully crafted show I should hear it."

"Did it ever occur to you he might be doing that so you'll react on your show?"

"...Not exactly." He admitted.

"Believe me, change the channel, stop bringing it up and eventually he'll get bored." She insisted.

"...I guess that's something to keep in mind." He acknowledged as his order came up.

\---

"Where have you been?" The station manager hissed as he slid in. "I had to make Ralph go on longer." He said, referring to their evening news guy who was currently droning on about current events.

"I got a little held up, but I'm here now." He insisted before slipped into the broadcasting booth, as the sound guy played his intro, putting on his headset and going into his usual opening statement

"...Hello this is 'Sense for cents,' I'm your host Neal Page about all things financial from stocks to investments...and even day to day spending." He said, glancing down at his notes, 'Corrections' in bold over several bullet points, all of which were about Del's last show. He narrowed his eyes, pushing it aside.

"This is where I'd usually go into the corrections segment of the show like I do everyday...instead I'd like to talk about investing your time wisely. Because as they say: Money is time, and it's important to invest your time in things that really matter."

\---

'_-For that matter, that also extends to people that don't matter. That are irrelevant to the subject matter at hand and just want to bring you down.'_

"Oh no, I managed to make it worse." Marie said with dismay as she drove home. Sure enough Del was sitting at the kitchen table with a pensive look on his face, cigarette in hand as he listened fervently to the radio

"...You know I don't like it when you smoke those, it just makes me want to start again." She joked grimly as she set the dinner she'd gotten at the deli on the table and pulled up a chair close to him. "...now what sort of example would I be setting then?"

"Aw I know, I guess I had a bit of a slip up." He said as he snubbed out the cigarette. "How was work? Do I want to know why you're in you're back up uniform?"

"You do not." She said curtly, pushing off her tennis shoes before perching her crossed feet on Del's knee. "...Without getting into the gnarly details lets just say I didn't feeling like making dinner, picked something up at Carson's Deli, the place near the station?"

"Suits me." He said with a grin. "You run into anybody interesting?"

"You could say that, I ran into him." She said, nodding towards the radio, where Neal was currently talking about when the best time to sell stocks was.

"No...you're kidding."

"Dead serious, it was right before his show. I think he came in to pick up a sandwich."

"Must've forgotten his at home, he was running a minute or two late." He said contemplatively. "He wasn't an asshole was he? He can be an asshole sometimes."

"No, he was fine...even remembered who I was." She said, not bringing up the context of how he remembered, least she fuel the weird feud the two had.

"Really? He's only met you once or twice."

"Well you do mention me on the show a lot." She said reluctantly, and he laughed triumphantly.

"Oh, of course. Because that bastard always listens."

"And you don't?" She pointed out skeptically as the pitch of Neal's voice rose on the radio as complained about a recent rise of gas prices.

"I don't know, if someone's gonna talk shit about me I might as well hear it." He said defensively, turning off the radio.

"Don't take this the wrong way hun, but don't you think that's precisely why you shouldn't listen?" 

"What do you mean?"

"I mean he's probably trying to get a rise out of you, and it might be a good idea to break the cycle?"

He smiled sheepishly, reaching for her hand and giving it a squeeze. "Son of a bitch darling, you're so right."

She shrugged, smiling back at him. "...I occasionally am."


	2. Chapter 2

After his show Neal ran into Del coming in to do his.

“Evening Griffith.” Neal said as they passed.

“Page…” Del answered simply, but thinking better of it a few seconds later adding: “Good show today by the way.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Neal said tiredly.

“I mean it was a good show…what I heard of it anyway, sorta dozed off when you started going on about 401k’s. They oughta move your show before bedtime.” 

“Oh, real funny, you’re a regular laugh riot.”

“I did listen long enough to hear you call me irrelevant.” Del pointed out.

Neal narrowed his eyes at him. “First of all, I didn’t specify you.”

“That’s debatable.” Del said.

“Second of all I meant irrelevant to my show.” He insisted. “Not irrelevant…in general.”

“Well, alright…”

“But if you want to interpret it that way…” Neal said innocently.

“Oh, you’re a loathsome man, you know that?” Del said, sounding slightly hurt though that didn’t deter Neal.

“Oh, I’m loathsome?” Neal shot back.  
\---

When their boss, Tommy Dylan the station head, came across them things hadn’t exactly gotten violent, but they were angrily tussling.

“The only reason you know the word loathsome is from listening to my show, you certainly wouldn’t have heard it from your bone headed listeners who call in.” Neal spat out as Del put him in a head lock.

“Big words from a guy who spent nearly twenty minutes arguing with a man who thought gambling is a sound investment plan.” Del retorted

“Oh, and you said you didn’t listen to today’s show!” Neal growled from under his arm.

“What on earth is going on here?” There boss exclaimed. 

They both looked up in horror, Neal still in Del’s grasp, and pulled apart.

“And that was my winning wrestling move.”

“Geez, I believe you. Mr. Dylan, did you know Del used to wrestle in highschool?”

“Best in my team.” Del chimed in, but the boss wasn’t moved.

“Save the theatrics, I’ll see both you gentlemen in my office tomorrow morning at nine.” He said flatly.

"...Well that can't be good." Del said with astonishment after he'd gone, and Neal rolled his eyes.

"Oh I'm sure he just gonna just tell us what a good job we're doing." He said sarcastically as he walked away.

\---

"Gentlemen, there's no easy way to say this but I'm going to have to let you both go." He said.

"Excuse me? It was just a little disagreement." Del insisted.

"But it really wasn't was it?" Their boss insisted. "This is the second time I've caught you roughhousing in the halls like a couple of unruly ten year olds, and that doesn't even account for the on air bickering. It's unprofessional, and this station didn't get to were it is as the biggest name in town on unprofessionalism."

"But firing us both...isn't that a bit extreme?" Neal pointed out.

"The thing is...I do like your shows, but they're just not that popular. Hell, the only reason people tune in anymore is the bickering, but it's just promoting workplace hostility. I just can't keep making excuses for you."

The two men looked at him dumbfounded and he sighed, taking the time to relight his cigar before continuing. "...Of course I'll need some time to fill in your slots, so I'm running your shows until the end of the month."

Neal and Del muttered solemnly: 'Yes sir' and 'Thank you sir's before getting up.

Neal was sitting in the breakroom with a cup of coffee when Del dropped by. "Hey, you're still here."

"Figuring out what I'm gonna tell my wife." 

"I know what you mean, Marie is going to kill me." Del said, sitting down at the table as well.

Neal scoffed. "I seriously doubt that. She'll probably just end up blaming me, I don't know if she mentioned this but we were literally just talking about this yesterday. About being civil essentially."

"Is that why you didn't do your little corrections segment at the beginning? ...How noble." Del said with wince. "I have to admit, I do find that portion entertaining in a weird way."

Neal found himself smiling to himself in agreement. "Maybe...but maybe a bright spot in this is us not having to deal with each other's shit."

"Maybe." Del agreed, though he sounded almost reluctant to.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! On the chance that anyone is coming back to read this, I feel I should give a heads up I replotted the whole thing so it might be confusing if you just continue with this chapter

Neal spent the next week and a half submitting resumes around town including a dinky radio station that had a morning opening to fill after the previous guy had retired. It was less then a half hour from where he currently worked but as soon as he got to the dinky, disorganized station called 'The Bluebird' with it’s smart alack station manager he knew it wouldn’t be a good fit.

“Look…” He said after a painful interview. “I’m gonna be frank, I don’t think you want someone like me.”

“No shit bud, I don’t know why some fuddy-dudy nobody money nerd even kept the position he had for so long, let alone think he could get a show at a time where .” The station manager said with dismay.

“Easy...” Neal said defensively. “I wasn’t finished. What I was about to say I know a guy who’d be a better fit. He’s Del Griffith, he has a show right after mine in the evenings…I suggest you look into him.”

“Del Griffith? With his ‘Believe it or not’ nonsense show? Yeah he’s been on our radar. Good for a laugh but it’s not the sort of thing you stay on, let alone play in the morning.”

“I’m just saying he’s worth talking to.” Neal insisted as he got up, feeling oddly offended. It was because of Marie, he told himself. She’s just so nice, he wasn’t about to hold the fact she was married to a bozo against her.

\---

“And that’s the state of stocks this week, not a good time to invest in IBM.” He said with a laugh. Del appeared outside the booth, looking at him angrily through the glass. “…We’re going to take a short commercial break before we get into balancing your checkbook while still putting money into your savings.”

He waved Del in hissing “What, what? I didn’t say anything.”

“No it’s not that, I just got a call I got from The Bluebird 93.3 AM radio. Something about giving me a recommendation?”

“Yeah…I went in for an interview, it wasn’t a good fit but I might’ve I recommended you.”

“Yeah they were interested in picking up my show on the weekends. Which you know: better then nothing.”

He was aware of his producer signaling at him was he assumed was a minute, and he raised his hand in acknowledgement. “Sure, what’s the issue?”

“These guy’s started bad mouthin’ you, so I tell them ‘hey, that’s my friend, nobody talks like that about him other then me so you can take your job and shove it.”

“No…you didn’t say that.” Neal said, putting his headphones on and greeted with ‘You’re on the air right now!’ From his producer.

He was frozen in place for a second before brightly saying: “Welcome back to sense for cents and I am with Del Griffith, host of the program ‘Believe it or Not’ who decided to join me as I discuss dealing with the financial fallout of losing one's job."

"Unrelated to our shows being taken off the air, that's merely a professional choice." 

"Yes, because apparently three hours of country is the better choice for this station." Neal said flatly.

"Oh, Imma have to stop and correct you there, that's three hours of country with E. Roger Muir and Howdy Doody." Del insisted.

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah, that was part of the announcement this morning."

"Well who can compete with Howdy Doody." Neal said drylu. 

"Neal, you do know Howdy Doody is just a puppet right?" Del asked jokingly, and Neal gave him a dirty look.

"Yeah I know he's just a puppet, what-" He couldn't finish his exasperated comment. "Why are you still here?"

"You had me on about how I handle losing a job?" 

"Right..." Neal said with a grimace. "So how did you?"

"Well, as I am currently it isn't the end of the world because both my wife and I earn a living so we can scrap along until I find something new, but I think something more notable would be me getting fired from my first job at this place called the Pretzel Barn. And might I say: first of all it wasn't my fault, no one told me the cheese machine that filled the pretzels would do that if you had it turned on for a certain amount of time."

"Maybe they didn't tell you because it was common sense." Neal shot back.

"I'm sorry, were you the one who worked a the Pretzel Barn in 1970? Please fill me in, clearly you're the expert."

"I've had a summer job where I had to work a machine like that. They were made in the 50s and could be fickle, anyone with decent observation skills could see."

"I shouldn't be held accountable for outdated equipment." Del insisted.

\---

_'You know what? Lets take it to the phones. Should the employer have been responsible for this or is it on the employee?' _Del exclaimed.

'_No no no, __don't bring your peanut gallery into this.' _Neal growled with exasperation.

"You gotta be kidding me." Susan said with dismay, stirring a bowl of cupcake batter she was making for the bake sale. The phone rang and she set the bowl down, answering it. "Hello?"

"Hi, I don't know if you remember me, I'm Marie Griffith?" Marie said, sitting at the reception desk with a portable radio next to her, white starched nurses hat nestled in her blond hair.

"Yeah, I remember you last years Christmas party." She said distractedly. "Are you hearing this too?"

"The radio show, yes." Marie said with bewilderment.

"What are they even doing?" Susan said with a similar tone. "I know they've already been fired, but they still have an image to maintain."

'_This who thing is ridiculous, why even put cheese in pretzels?' _Neal said over the radio in disgust _'There's just too much cheese around'_

'_Well I think it comes down to one thing: backlogs of underground cheese tanks the government had to get rid of.' _Del replied.

"I don't know, but this whole thing feels like my fault." Marie said. "I ran into your husband the other day and told him: 'hey, maybe he's trying to get a rise out of you-"

"What? Don't be ridiculous, I tell him the same thing all the time. He probably just listened to because you have the inside scoop."

Marie laughed at that. "I suppose I didn't think of it that way." Someone approached the desk in the hospital and she said: "...I have to go."

"Alright...but you should come over sometime to talk."

She smiled. "I'd Iike that."

After Susan hung up, smiling herself she was greeted with '_Look all I'm saying is they had to shill all that cheese on the masses. I don't see how that isn't a economic matter.' _From Del over the radio.

_'Big Dairy tricking people into making more grilled cheese sandwiches is barely an economic matter.' _

"Mom, can we have grilled cheese for dinner?" Their son, Neal Jr, or Junior, asked from where he and his sister were doing their homework at the table.

"I already made stew, maybe tomorrow for lunch." She said.

\---

Several days later Neal got another call from 'The Bluebird', the radio station that had rejected him. "I'm sorry, I must've heard that wrong, you want to do what?"

_'Host a show together...I know we said we thought you were boring and all that, but we heard your show with that Griffith fella and we thought you two were terrific. I can see why you lobbied so hard for him.'_

Neal rubbed his temple. "Yeah, he's a hoot and a half. Listen, I think there's been a misunderstanding, Del was just a guest speaker."

"Even so, we love you're dynamic, we're offering your a weekday morning slot from seven to nine."

Neal's jaw dropped at that and he had to take a moment to collect himself. "...I'll need to discuss it with Del first."

After hanging up he numbly went to find Susan, who was in the middle of doing laundry.

"That was The Bluebird 95.3 AM...they offered me a morning show."

"What? You're kidding." 

"I wish I was...you remember that show I unintentionally did with Del a few days ago?"

"Yeah?" She said with a worried frown as she continued to load the dryer.

"They want me to do it with him."

"Oh..." She said as she turned the dryer on. "...I'm sure I don't need to tell you that's a disaster waiting to happen."

"That's what I said...but then he said the words 'Morning Show' and I got indecisive." He shrugged helplessly. "I've always wanted to host a morning radio show, be that station someone turns to when they're going to work. Besides, I'm gonna be out of a job in a week."

"Well think it over really good, just because it's something you've always wanted to do doesn't change how you feel about the man."

He sighed. "...Believe me, I know." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
